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Cable news careens toward defining moment

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
05/28/2017 06:37:35 AM EDT

By Callum Borchers

The Washington Post

The cable news order is out of whack. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is No. 1. Lawrence O'Donnell is right behind her, but his contract with MSNBC expires in less than two weeks, and he seems pessimistic about the prospect of renewal.

Meanwhile, Bill O'Reilly, the deposed King of Cable News, is a now free agent garnering interest from TheBlaze, Newsmax and One America News -- conservative outlets that seem to sense that Fox News Channel might be vulnerable. Last week, for the first time in 17 years, Fox News rated third in prime time, behind MSNBC and CNN, in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers covet.

Sean Hannity reassured viewers last week that he is staying at Fox News, after the network signaled a lower tolerance for conspiracy mongering by retracting an article about the killing of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Yet Hannity's future still seems tenuous. He tweeted last month that the departure of network co-president Bill Shine would mean "the total end of the FNC as we know it." Shine resigned four days later.

The big picture is this: Cable news, as a medium, is careening toward a defining moment that could transform it significantly or return it to the status quo of the past decade. Several key questions could be answered in the near future.

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Will Fox News stabilize and return to dominance, or will a conservative rival snag O'Reilly and maybe even Hannity and become a viable competitor? Hannity has said on Twitter that he is under contract for the next four years, but he, like other Fox News stars, is widely reported to have a "key man clause" in the deal. That would allow him to leave early in the event of an exit by a "key man," such as Shine or former chairman Roger Ailes, who was forced out last summer and died last week.

Imagine TheBlaze TV with founder Glenn Beck, O'Reilly and Hannity anchoring a prime-time lineup, as they did for Fox News from 2008 to 2011. You'd have to take the channel seriously.

Could a Fox News disrupter come from the left instead of the right? (i.e. Is MSNBC's surge sustainable?) Perhaps she was just being humble, but Maddow told talk-show host Stephen Colbert on The Late Show Monday that her program might not stay on top for long.

"I do cable news in kind of a weird way, and we haven't changed the way we do the show at all," Maddow said. "It just seems like more people want that now. So, I'm assuming people will go back to not wanting it sometime soon."

Colbert disagreed. "I think they'll want it for at least four to eight years," he said, referring to the duration of Donald Trump's presidency.

The sudden popularity of liberal talkers Maddow and O'Donnell suggests that MSNBC has an opportunity to seize a mantle: Voice of the Trump Resistance. But is that what MSNBC wants, even if it means high ratings?

MSNBC began shifting away from liberal opinion programming in 2015, when it canceled or moved weekday shows hosted by Al Sharpton, Joy Reid, Alex Wagner and Ed Schultz, and launched a daily version of Meet the Press with Chuck Todd and brought in Brian Williams, fresh off suspension from NBC. Williams anchors an 11 p.m. news show and could replace O'Donnell at 10.

After the network hired former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, a split with O'Donnell would further indicate that MSNBC simply does not want to embrace the role of anti-Trump agitator.

Networks and the big-name personalities that fill their air have some major decisions to make -- ones that will go a long way toward determining whether the future of cable news looks familiar or radically different.

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